RE: The End Is Only The Beginning
by Heltevir
Summary: Movie fic revision and continuation of RE: Genesis. New and cannon characters. First part of a trilogy about a handful of people attempting to stop the Umbrella Corp from turning its creation loose on an unsuspecting world. Some romance, mostly action, st
1. Prolouge: Exercise A

This story is purely fanfiction written for the enjoyment of other readers. No profit is made off of these stories, please don't sue me.

The following story is a revision and continuation of the first Resident Evil Movie. It does not follow the book or the movie script perfectly: I did that on purpose. Several of the characters who died will survive in this story and events do not play out the same as they do in the film to satisfy my artistic vision of how I'd like to have seen the movie go. I don't plan on using any game characters in the fanfic (as I've never actually played any of the games- just read tons of fanfic). And I will be introducing non-cannon characters and concepts. Movie 2 also will not necessarily be followed beyond concept.

The characters used are as follows:

Alice, Matt Addison, Spence Parks, JD Salinas, Chad Kaplan and Rain Ocampo

Non-cannon characters are as follows:

Carlita Menzana, Paul Basino, the Director, Margaret 'Maggie' Ellis, Sonya Rojas, Robert Young and Daniel 'Danny' Fletcher

I plan for this to be the first of several stories. And I appreciate feedback: just please no flames. I understand that dialogue and actions don't go exactly the same as they did in the movie: it's on purpose. This is my first attempt at a fanfic. So let me know your thoughts, please. I appreciate all constructive reviews.  
-  
PROLOUGE: Exercise A

A heavy silence had fallen over the monitoring station. The moment the Umbrella Corporation's risk assessment team had entered the property they faced the chance of everything going terribly wrong. But it'd moved as smooth and unfettered as silk through the paces even after the stranger had somehow worked his way into the picture. Step by step they moved as though they somehow knew and willingly accepted what was waiting for them within the test.

Carlita Menzana carefully monitored the situation from her perch within the station, keeping readings on each team member's vital signs through tiny microscopic bugs in their clothing and weaponry. Every facet of their personage was tagged, recorded and added to the databanks that spelled out who they were and how they responded within the exercise.

Her screens had played out the team entering the Hive, winding through the labs on up to the dining room where they split up into two separate clusters. Paul Basino handled the knot staying in the dining room while she enthusiastically watched as the mainstay of the commando unit traipsed towards the Red Queen's chamber. Carlita leaned forward just a bit as they reached the terminal chamber and Kaplan started running through the files. The numbers flew across her screen as well as his in an exact mirror of what was happening on the man's laptop unit.

She was so caught up in the scene that she almost jumped when she felt a hand press down on the back of her chair. The Director braced himself between her chair and Paul's, watching with her as the scene unfolded. A small smile grew on the man's lips slowly as if the emotion was afraid to truly effect him in any way until it grew so large there was no denying his pleasure. He tapped Carlita's shoulder with long bony fingers as a few of the team members moved into the long room holding the Red Queen's defense systems.

"Delay the code." He told her, leaning close to whisper into her dark curls. Carlita almost turned- almost- but the thought of staring him in the eye simply made her stomach churn.

"Sir, if I delay the program the automated defense systems will come online while Team Alpha is in their vicinity. They'll-" She drew in a deep breath as he made a low growl in the back of his throat. The noise barely sounded human.

"Delay the code." He repeated again in a tone that simply demanded obedience.

With trembling fingers Carlita blocked the code from processing properly through Kaplan's computer. On her screen she saw the doors slide shut to trap the team inside the Vault simultaneously as her mirror of Kaplan's screen flashed 'Weapons Systems Activated' in glaring yellow letters.

"Show me the Vault." The Director almost purred. Carlita thought she heard him lick his lips as her screen split into yet another panel. On it she saw the thin blue laser zip through Drew's hand, severing fingers before sliding effortlessly through the team's medic Danilova. Her head separated from her shoulders cleanly without much more than a thin line of blood.

Carlita's hand flew to her mouth as the laser recharged and shot out again. One by one the team members died- not fast enough to spare them their terror- but fast and efficiently enough that by the time the Director had cleared her to free the code they were already dead: Just cooling slabs of meat on the floor.

She felt ill. She was horrified. She'd just caused the death of four people whom she'd been following every aspect of their lives for the last six months. She knew them. She'd lived with- no, through them. Sniffling back tears that threatened to well forth and slip down her cheeks, Carlita kept her hand pressed to her mouth. Then she felt a cold metal muzzle press against her head just behind her right ear.

Then nothing more.

"I am not to be questioned!" The Director bellowed, sliding the weapon back into its almost indistinguishable holster within his jacket. He looked around the room at all the startled faces, daring each silently to say something- anything- until they all nervously returned to work. Only Paul Basino paused for a moment. And that was to wipe his coworker's blood off his face.

Paul watched out of the corner of his eye as the Director had Menzana's body drug out and her station cleaned almost mechanically. A new woman was seated there before the seat had even grown cold. And then the Director moved over to him. He took a moment to watch the scene on Paul's screen unfold and that same cold grin crept over the man's features.

"An infection: excellent. Keep the vitals of Ocampo monitored closely. Release all internal locks within the Hive save for the west dining room doors." He hung there like a storm cloud over Paul's shoulder. It didn't even seem like the man breathed..

The ensuing panic on his screen drew Paul's attention away from the unsettling thought. He silently rooted for them as they cut through swathes of undead and narrowly missed being felled by more that seemed to pour in from every angle. They were herded quite liberally towards the west door Paul realized and he wondered if any were meant to survive the exercise.

Hell, would he survive the exercise? Thinking of Carlita he kept his face stoic when the Director once again called for the codes to be blocked. Without another thought Paul hit the codes and watched, waited, anticipated. He felt the Director's gaze on him as he kept his face straight and unmoved by the cries of the people on the screen.

When the door was released he watched one of Beta Team drug off into the masses by more undead, then their retreat with guns blazing back towards the Red Queen's chambers. His relief was silent and unspoken, more so when the Director looked away.

"Continue." Was the Director's only order as the man retired to his chair- his throne- at the center of the monitoring station. 


	2. Whittled Down

Again this story is fanfic only. No profit is made from its writing. This is purely for amusement and storytelling. I appreciate feedback on my writing. Just remember that the initial chapters are rewrites of the end of the movie to establish new continuity. 

ONE: Whittled Down

Kick ass motherfuckers: that's what they were. Big bad and hell bent. When things went bad they were the first in to secure, obtain, eliminate. It's who they were as much as what they did. It's who they were..

Were was the operative word, Rain Ocampo thought as she sat at the edge of a series of heating pipes a bare few feet above hordes of undead clamoring for blood. She'd hit on every mood from disgusted to angry to a dark and violent depression watching them churn below them like dogs begging for scraps at the edge of the table.

The team was dead. Everybody was fucking dead except for Kaplan who sure as hell deserved to die if any of them were going to. He'd gotten everyone killed yet somehow his whining ass had slunk along at Alice's heels and managed to make it so far while everyone else- everyone that mattered- was dead or in various stages of death scattered through the hive. Drew, Warner, Danilova, One, JD..

JD.

Rain couldn't put a name to the pain she felt at the thought of losing him. It was like half of her was missing. He was her partner, her friend, her.. something! Damn it, he was.. so many things that she wouldn't/couldn't say- not even to herself. He was something she'd been missing most of her life and all she could do was watch as he was carried away on an inhuman tide. Rain had held on as long as she could but his fingers slipped from hers.

He'd screamed: that kept echoing in her head. Over and over and over again. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fucking fair! There was a gaping sore inside her that housed all those losses, all that fallen glory and pain. And around it was a dark sinuous poison slowly eating at her body. She was infected. Damned. Dying. She was going to be one of those things down there in a matter of time and turn on the others if they didn't cap her first. Or find an anti-virus. Or get eaten alive-

Something snapped inside the brunette and a wave of anxiety and anger bubbled up. They were screwed: plain and simple. There were thousands of dead Umbrella Corporation employees between them and the train, a time lock set to seal them underground and a damn huge complex to cover with a dwindling team. They were dog meat. And she wanted to live so badly..

"There's a vent over this way."

That perked her attention. Looking the direction that Addison pointed relief washed over Rain. Sure enough down a skinny line of pipes jigging off to the east was a metal grate leading into what looked like some kind of large duct. All they needed to do was scale the pipes and at least they'd have cover.

Piece of cake.

Or it would be if she could see clearly or her hands weren't shaking and wet with her own blood. Son of a bitch. Rain took a deep breath and pushed herself forward. It was now or never. Following closely behind Spence the bulk of his body helped her put distance in perspective Rain made it to the grate and gracefully accepted Matt's help past the edge.

He pointed towards the rear on the long half enclosed shaft and she nodded, understanding his unspoken direction. Rain drew her Colt and headed back to make sure there'd be no unwanted visitors dropping in unseen when she heard the crash of mental hitting concrete and spun around. Through the mesh she could barely make out Kaplan's lone form struggling on a set of mostly collapsed pipes. Spence and Matt had managed to yank Alice back up and into the shaft but no one could grab Chad before he literally slipped into the mass of bodies.

Rain heard herself call out after him. She hadn't meant what she'd thought! She hadn't meant it! Taking aim through the grate Rain fought through the haze to pick out targets, but she couldn't. Hell, she couldn't hit the broadside of a barn much less keep the zombies off of him or mercifully end his life before they did.

"Help him!" Alice shrieked from the entrance.

Her shoulders fell, as did her weapon. "I can't." The words drew her down even further into the darkness. "I can't see, I-"

"What are you waiting for? HELP HIM!" Before Rain could finish what she was saying Alice grabbed the weapon out of her hands and started popping shots into the crowd like a pro. Right: she was a pro. Kaplan scrambled up onto the broken pipe again, back up the way they'd came and far out of reach.

The others were talking- Rain was half aware of that. She half heard desperate promises that they'd find a way to get to him, but all Rain could focus on was the man clinging to the pipe. She could almost make out his face if she stared long enough. Almost. And she'd need to see it because she owed him that. There was no way they were making it back across to him again with anything less than an armored car or a hell of a lot of napalm.

Kaplan looked up as if feeling the weight of her gaze and held up the revolver he'd mostly emptied. "One shot left.." He announced. "Lucky.."

Rain swallowed hard, understanding his intention immediately. Damn if she hadn't always busted his chops for being a spineless ass! Why'd he have to get a set when she wasn't looking and suddenly..

"Go! I want you to go now! You can't kill 'em all! Just please, go!" Kaplan yelled over the noise from the mob. An argument ensued and Alice kept on yelling, but she felt someone's hand take her arm and start guiding her away. The thought to shake the arm off was fleeting at best as she stumbled along with them, legs weak and her chest tight.

"I'm sorry.." She mumbled. "You did good." But he wouldn't hear her. Not over all the noise. Not as weak as her voice had suddenly become.

A shot rang out behind them and another of Rain's nerves seemed to crumble under the weight of growing hysteria. Her mind started to hopscotch from subject to subject under the weight of all that had happened, the illness, the mourning. It was all insane. Fucking insane.

She was lost in her own world as they moved along the shaft half draped over Matt as if he was suddenly her only source of strength. Laugh. Cry. Scream. Rant. Every emotion you could name was blended together and forced down her throat, leaving a raw and acrid burn coursing through her system in its wake.

Down the shaft, up a grate, Rain was literally hung over Matt's arm again as they drug her on behind a wide eyed Alice who looked none the better. Her eyes were glassy with fear, hope shadowy and as she picked and poked through sparse metal halls in search of something that'd point them in the right direction. To Rain in her brief moments of clarity she looked more like a lost child then the former head of security for the Hive.

It was her eyes. There was a guiltless, hopeful, desperately trusting quality to her eyes. Somehow they made Rain feel guilty for being weak when they passed over her. And in defense of that innocence she did what she did best in stressful situations: Rain started cracking jokes.

"Yanno- when I get outta here- I think I'm gonna get laid.." She said with a smirk up at Spence to shear off the tension of wandering the nearly non-descript shotgun hallways. He and Matt both laughed, but Alice was beyond them.. lost again in thought. Matt jokingly told her that she might want to clean up a bit first.

Well no shit, Sherlock! Was the first comment that came to mind, but before she could bite off the remark Matt had shuffled her off to half lean against a wall/half be supported by Spence and took a few quick steps towards Alice. Rapid-fire heavy words passed between the two of them. As blurry as her vision was Rain couldn't see the expressions on their faces, but their stances and Spence's stiffening beside her told her that there was even more trouble in paradise. Just what they fucking needed, right?

"There's a cure.." It sounded almost uncertain tumbling out of Alice's mouth as if she was still grappling with the truth of the matter, but it sure as hell caught Rain's attention. "There's a cure! The process can be reversed!"

She spun back towards Rain and said those golden words again. "There's a cure! You're going to be okay."

Rain couldn't help but crack a grin. Those few words seemed to cut through the din of murky emotion and illness to sooth a tiny space of calm in her belly amidst writhing snakes coiled in her intestines. "And here I was beginning to worry.." The next thing she knew Alice was bolting off ahead of them with Matt hot on her heels while Spence dragged her along behind them.

The room they came into was nearly halfway flooded with freezing water. She didn't have to join the first two charging down into the mess to know it was cold, Rain could feel the chill in her bones achingly as she was settled down on the stairs leading into the sunken lab. She rested her head against the guardrail, trying to regain a second wind as Alice shot ahead to a vault door and started wrestling to get it open. Spence joined her in the effort but Matt stayed back with her: defensive and angry in posture. Alice must have dropped a bomb with whatever she'd told him. 'Cause if her being a grade A bitch to him back at the mansion hadn't set him into a huff whatever she'd said to him now sure did.

The vault in the wall opened and Alice stood there for a moment as if dumbstruck. Then she turned slowly, hands streaking up into her short honey blonde hair. "I don't understand. It's gone. It's not there, it's all gone.."

The room flashed dark for Rain and she thought for one horrifying moment that she'd faint. She clung onto the bar like a life preserver as much as she clung onto wakefulness, but her resolve was just done for. Fuck it, fuck it, fuck it.. She was going to die down there. In the cold wet stinkin' god forsaken secret facility and no one would ever know that she- any of them- had ever died..

Alice drew closer and slipped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her- close enough that Rain could see pity in the woman's eyes and that shot the last of her nerves to shreds. Rain Ocampo drew herself inwards and stared off into the murky water.

Matt Addison was feeling pretty numb himself. He'd come to the Hive on a mission himself and just like Ocampo he was sitting there with his hands empty and ten tons of guilt, pain and suffering making his shoulders drag. His sister Lisa was dead. He'd seen her with his own two eyes, almost touched her -thinking that she was alive and in shock- but she was among the living dead as well. She'd died for a cause. And so would he it seemed. And he'd believed in it so much. He'd believed that they could do it-

"Spence?" Something was wrong with the tone of Alice's voice when she called out his name. Alice the traitor. Alice who was Lisa's contact. Alice who should have died, not his sister..

His attention snapped towards the water as suddenly Alice and Spence both dove for the weapon that Alice had left laying on a table above the water level. She tripped and Spence grabbed it first, aiming not at her, but Matt who could only blink at whatever had just silently transpired between the two. He would have uttered something in his defense but Rain's dazed "What the fuck" summed up the situation pretty well for him.

The gun was aimed at him, but Spence's eyes were boring into Alice with some feral gleam that didn't sit at all well in Matt's gut. "We can still get out of here alive." Spence told her. "Come with me. We can have everything: anything you could ever want. You wouldn't- couldn't- believe the money waiting for us out there if the virus gets into the hands of the right people. I can make your dreams come true Alice. Come with me."

Alice's head raised a little, her stance firm as if she somehow drew strength from the situation. The look on Spence's face shifted darkly, the gun tilted back towards Alice- And Matt threw himself into motion over the railing at Spence. It was a heroic if not tragically mistimed act as instead of crashing into the man, Matt fell a few steps short and ended up with the business end of a heavy pistol aimed at his face.

"Please- I don't want to shoot you.." Spence warned, not giving an inch of ground. "I might need the bullets. Back off now."

"I won't have any part of this.." Alice's voice drew the attention off of him long enough for Matt to regain his bearings and back up a few steps again. Her tone dripped a malice meant to keep the attention focused on her. Make a window- an opening for someone to pull some magic plan out of a hat- or get them killed: whichever came first.

"We work for the same company, Alice. You, me, her!" He said pointing the weapon back at Rain for punctuation. The brunette's expression was stony and focused. She'd somehow found the strength or rage to pull herself to sit upright and glare icily at the man holding her gun.

"Where's the anti-virus?" Rain asked in a deadpan ragged tone. For a moment Matt could almost see her lunging at Spence herself, but she didn't.

"On the train. It couldn't have been more than three feet away from you back there: isn't that a bitch? I nearly made it out of here, too. Would have if I'd have known that the Hive was trapped inside and out. But instead I got drug back down here. Now." Spence pointed the weapon back at Alice. "Pick: In or out. Are you with me or not?"

Alice's lips twitched in revulsion- almost a dare. "I don't know what we had, but it's over." The words had no sooner left her lips than once again the room erupted into chaos. A zombie rose up out of the murky water and latched onto Spence. With a cry he tucked the weapon under his elbow and squeezed off some rounds before spinning almost artfully and dropping a slug into the once woman's head.

Matt didn't take the time to count off mental math to figure how many rounds should be left- he dove at Spence again only to eat an elbow in the face. He picked himself up while Spence yelled "Back off! Both of you back off!" And he did. So did Alice.

Spence took the stairs quickly, deftly avoiding Rain and looking back only once to give Alice a leering grin from the threshold. "I'm missing you all ready, beautiful." Then the door slid shut.

There was a heartbeat or two of silent anticipation between everyone in the room before Matt lunged after the door and yanked at the handle uselessly. It didn't budge an inch. "He must've shot the locking mechanism!"

"Your boyfriends a real asshole, yanno." Rain chimed in ever so helpfully.

Matt turned around to survey the situation, looking from Rain's cold expression to Alice's back as she sloughed off Spence's jacket and dropped it in the water. "I can't believe he's going to just get away with this!"

A child's voice suddenly filled the room, coy and precocious with a teasing English accent. "I don't think so." It drawled. In the corner of the room a small monitor blinked to life with the Umbrella Corporation's logo, lit at the corner with a glaring red electronic eye. "I've been a bad, bad girl.."

If he ever found the sick bastard who programmed the Hive's AI fondly called the Red Queen, Matt vowed he'd wring their necks and personally shove her mainframe down their throat. The scene on the monitor changed as he watched it, showing Spence's mad dash to the train from an overhead view. They were so close. So damn close to getting out of there- not to mention the cure!

As a silent trio they watched Spence enter the train and return to the closet where he withdrew a reinforced suitcase and set it on the platform. He keyed in a code that Matt put to memory unconsciously and immediately withdrew a green vial and syringe. As he tied himself off the camera picked up a flicker of movement hanging just overhead of Matt, pinkish in coloration and moving in a mix of jerky strength and fluidity that spoke of intense strength and sinuous speed. It crept closer to reveal horrifically misshapen features: bulging muscles, rows of razor sharp teeth and a tongue that curled forth like a prehensile tail to taste the air before it.

It dropped from the ceiling onto Spence who had no warning- no defense against it as it ripped the man to shreds. Even though he'd left them to die Matt wasn't prepared to see Spence go that way. No one deserved to die like that. This had to be stopped. The corporation had to be stopped!

Clearing his throat Matt directed his attention to the eye, not the gruesome scene on camera and whatever game the AI was playing now. "What the fuck is that?" He asked, his tone obviously strained.

"It is one of the Hive's early experiments stemming from injecting the T virus directly into living tissue. The results were highly unstable and thus it was being held within a stasis unit until the power was cut to its unit. Now that it has fed on fresh DNA it will mutate to become a stronger, faster, more efficient hunter." The Red Queen piped almost cheerily.

"Great." Rain grumbled from the stairs. Matt had almost forgotten that she was there.

"If you knew that this thing was loose why didn't you tell us?" He asked, trying not to watch the thing on screen continue to paw at Spence's prone body. He couldn't miss the fact that the thing looked like it was growing though. The body almost visibly lengthened as the limbs stretched and its claws hooked cruelly into talons.

"Because she was saving it for us, isn't that right?" Alice guessed, watching the eye as well.

"I didn't think any of you would make it so far- not without infection." However childlike the voice sounded, there was a cold undertone to it that made Matt's skin crawl.

"Why didn't you tell us about the anti-virus?" Again Rain spoke up and this time Matt truly turned to look at her. She had one foot in the grave- you could tell just by looking at her. Sunken eyed, clammy skinned, dripping with a cold sweat and near shaking.

"This long after infection there's no guarantee that it would work." Cooed the Red Queen.

Rain jumped at the answer like a pit bull locking onto a target. "But there's a chance, right?"

"I don't deal in chance." The AI responded.

Frustration seethed inside of Matt and he spun around in a circle, looking for anything that might help the situation. There was a door in the far corner tucked back in an alcove with a number lock set into the wall beside it. What the hell, he thought as he waded over to it and started trying random buttons. What the hell have we got to lose?

He wasn't the only person to get into the spirit of things. Rain had slid off her perch at the top of the landing and found an axe handle amongst the watery debris. She looked meaningfully at the Plexiglas window spanning one wall of the lab and took one faltering step forward only to crumple against an upright chair. "Fuck it.. No pressure guys. No pressure.."

In an almost sing song voice the Red Queen called out "You require a 4 digit authorization code to access that door."

"No shit!" Matt yelled as he tried another set of combinations. How many random patterns of 4 digits could there possibly be?

"I can give you the code." Again demure, the AI sang. Matt could almost picture a little girl in a frilly dress twisting from side to side as the words were spoken. "But first you have to do something for me."

Alice and Matt both stopped what they were doing and looked up at the red eye in confusion. After all the tricks and traps the computer was honestly going to cut them a break?

"What do you want?" Alice blurted out first.

"One of your group is infected. I require her life for the code."

Matt's jaw dropped. He looked from Rain who still sat slumped down half in the water to Alice whose face was literally white with rage. She jabbed a finger towards the monitor screaming "The anti-virus is right there! Right there! It's the goddamn cure!"

"I'm sorry.." There was even a diplomatic pause before the Red Queen continued on. Almost human. Almost. "But that is a risk I simply cannot take. Infection cannot spread beyond the confines of the Hive. All steps shall be taken to ensure that such an event will not happen."

She'd killed hundreds in the Hive all ready. Three more would hardly make a difference in her grand scheme. Matt thought to himself. He glanced back at Rain and followed her dead eyed stare out the window just beyond him. He could almost hear her echoing Alice's words in her thoughts. They were so damn close. And time was running out.

"She's right." The words tumbled out of Rain's mouth with a steely kind of resignation. She hefted the axe as best as she could and tossed it the short distance to Alice who caught in with an easy grace. "You're gonna have to kill me to get out of here. Do it." The Latina slid off the chair onto her knees in the freezing water.

"You're fucking kidding me! No one else is going to die here!" Matt yelled. Alice just stood there in stunned silence a few steps away, reflexively gripping the axe like a baseball bat. Like security.

"No." She uttered resolutely.

Glaring up at the woman Rain pressed onwards. "If you don't we'll all die down here. You can get outta here. Get out and stop all of this. Do it. No one'll blame you."

"Get up." It wasn't an order. It wasn't a request. It was sheer desperation fueling Alice's command. Get up and somehow we'll make this okay Matt read into the statement. Honestly that's all he wanted, too.

"Do it." Rain mustered up more conviction to slam behind her words.

"Please Rain get up. We'll figure this out. There's got to be another way-" Alice's words were cut off by a tinny warning from the Red Queen reminding them that time was running out. The time lock on the outer doors to the Hive had only minutes before it'd seal them in. Minutes..

"Do it Alice!"

"No!" Alice's resolve was visibly crumbling as her grip on the axe tightened. Mat started towards her with a hand reached out to steady her when something threw its self against the window behind them. The thing from the train platform flung its body against the window again, leaving a spidery crack in the heavy plastic from the impact.

"DO IT!" Ocampo was yelling now and the AI was egging them on with an almost gleeful chorus of "Kill her. Kill her. Kill her."

Alice screamed in mixed frustration and rage and swung the axe not towards Rain but towards the monitor with its glowing red electric eye. Both died with a sick electric hiss and the lights in the labs flickered down and died. The monster was no longer at the window- no. But something was at the door. The lockset Matt had been trying to figure out whirred open and unlatched as Alice once again readied the axe.


	3. The End Is The Beginning

At the end of this chapter the movie's continuity comes to an end and the story goes off on a wild bend from here. Enjoy the ride!

-

TWO: The End Is Just The Beginning

She was ready.

Alice felt like an avenging angel with the axe in her hands. There was an iron rod in place of her spine and an odd sort of calm that somehow deadened her nerves to fear as she waited for the beast to come at them through the door. She'd defend them- her friends. Not that they were friends hours ago but after all they'd been through she'd die for them just as Rain was willing to moments before.

Taking a deep breath she watched as the door swung open, but instead of an eyeless hulking brute Chad Kaplan stood there with that damn boyish grin on his face. His short hair was a mess of sweaty curls and his face was pale, but he was alive and standing there. She should have known he was too smart to die like that.

"Kaplan?" Rain's voice sounded a little stronger just saying his name. Alice knew that him being there would fortify her. He was a part of her team. He'd need her and the brunette- ever the loyal soldier- would push through for that reason alone.

"The bitch wouldn't open the door." Kaplan laughed, holding up the tiny remote that linked back to the Red Queen's motherboard. "I had to fry her."

Alice laughed. She turned around to help Rain get to her feet when once again the Plexiglas window shuddered as the creature from the train rammed into it. Alice closed her hand around Rain's wrist a split second before the heavy plastic gave and bodily drug the woman out the door without looking back. They were in the hall with the door slammed and bolted behind them before she stopped to see if they'd all made it.

Rain was on the floor with Matt crouched down beside her, throwing her arm over his shoulder to help her get up again. Kaplan was watching the door warily as if to pose the silent question 'what the fuck was that?' As if in response the door- a couple inches of solid steel easily- buckled outwards in an indentation vaguely shaped like two great fists.

"That's not going to hold.." Matt warned and started moving quickly down the hall with Rain in his arms. "Come on! We're almost there!"

It sounded like a plan to Alice.

She brought up the rear as they entered the cavernous train tunnel, expecting at any moment for hordes of undead or that huge fucking monster to come racing at them. She pointed at the train as they drew near and told Kaplan to start it up. "I'll get the anti-virus." No one argued. Whether it was relief that they'd reached their ticket out of there or not having to pick through pieces of Spence to get it she couldn't tell. For her.. well.. it was no skin off her nose.

Alice watched the body for a moment before reaching for the case. She closed the lid and still the body didn't move. Tucking it under her arm, Alice reached for Rain's gun next and pried it from Spence's stiffening fingers. He twitched- or she thought he twitched- and rapid fire she dropped a bullet into his brain. It was merciful for him, for them. And it certainly offered closure. She twisted the ring that symbolized their staged wedding off of her finger and left it with his corpse.

As she boarded the train Alice handed off the cure to Matt who immediately set about treating Kaplan. The train moving moments later only shored up her sense of security. It was over. It was over.. She settled down next to Rain when Matt headed to treat her next, but the young woman seemed less than enthusiastic about the injection. Her limbs seemed weighted, her eyes drooping and heavy. Every breath she took was labored and shallow as if the life was simply draining from her form. Alice wouldn't let herself admit it but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it was too late for Rain.

She didn't even make a smarmy comment as Matt injected her, which was an outright statement in its self that she was pretty far gone. Instead her dark eyes focused on Alice, once again serious and single minded. "I don't wanna be one of those things.. Out there walkin' around without a soul. When the time comes you'll take care of it." Rain wasn't asking. She was once again telling her that it was okay to let her go.

"Hey.. No one else is going to die. We're in the clear." Alice reassured her with a smile that didn't have to be forced. They were almost there. They had the cure. Everything was going to be all right.

Rain didn't look terribly convinced. Instead she clumsily ripped the watch off her wrist with numb fingers and held it out to Alice. It digitally displayed the time in the upper right corner and the minutes and seconds they had left in bold figures rapidly speeding by.

Alice took the offering with a question forming on her lips when Rain's head slumped forward onto her chest. The woman's body stilled. Her breathing seemed to stop. Alice's heart dropped into her stomach and she swallowed hard. "Rain?" She asked, reaching out to tentatively touch the younger woman's forehead. "Rain?"

With a sob she picked up the gun she'd taken from Spence and raised it level with Rain's head. She thumbed the safety and took a deep breath. All eyes were on her: she could feel it. Fingers tightening on the trigger Alice blinked back tears- and nearly fired when Rain's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, tilting the weapon upwards quickly away from her face.

"I'm not dead yet." Ocampo admonished. Her grip had grown stronger in just those few seconds and amazingly enough so had her breathing. Adrenaline or the cure? "Maybe I should have this back for now." She twisted the gun out of Alice's loose fingers and dropped it into the holster at her side while Alice laughed in relief.

She put a hand to either side of Rain's face and gave her a little shake, still laughing. "I could kiss you, you bitch!"

"Not in this lifetime-" Whatever the tail end of Rain's comment was lost in the sudden screeching of metal being shorn away. Alice's head whipped up in time to see Chad Kaplan's form be ripped from the train's conductor booth by the beast- the thing that'd killed Spence. She screamed in denial: No! They were too damn close!

Matt whipped across the cabin's length in an attempt to secure the back door- as if that'd do a damn thing- only to have it flung inwards and knock both him and the struggling Rain to the ground. He pulled himself up, but Rain didn't. She lay still half covered by the remainder of the door- a trickle of blood welling out from under her dark hair.

Alice grabbed under the door for Rain's gun and leveled off three clean shots into the creature's head. The shot parted the skin but flattened uselessly against the tough bone protecting its cranium. In response the beast flicked out its tongue like a lasso and looped it around Alice leg. Its intent seemed to be to drag her straight into its gaping jaw, but Alice threaded her fingers through a section of grating and literally held on for dear life.

A moment later the beast's grip loosened when Matt tried to spear it with a pipe. It flung aside the attack with one swipe of a clawed paw. Alice heard Matt cry out in pain, but she was totally focused on the thing. With the gun now out of reach she grabbed up the pipe that Matt had dropped and another shaken free in the hell and a hand basket ride they were on and drove them both at the creature. The first pinned the beast's tongue to the floor of the train. The second rammed down through the tongue again and it wailed in pain.

"The door!" Alice screamed over its keening and Matt leapt into motion. He threw the switch for the train's trapdoor to drop and suddenly the beast, the grill- the entire center of the compartment was dropped onto the track in a shower of sparks and the horrid stench of burning flesh. The wheels bucked and more metal screamed- arcing, twisting, protesting. For a moment Alice thought they were going to crash but the wheels met the metal tracks again and seemed to straighten out.

Matt raced for the conductor's booth but all Alice could do was stand there waiting. Her nerves were stripped raw and her mind was screaming. She'd been through things that no person should ever have to. She'd saved her friends only to watch them die just out of reach. She'd thought they were safe only to have it thrown in her face that they weren't.

She wasn't even aware that they'd come to a stop until Matt's gentle shake at her shoulder jolted her out of her reverie. He pressed the case into her arms and nudged her towards the ruined doorway and the platform beyond with only seconds left on the watch on her wrist. "Rain?" She'd started to say but he just nudged her forward, onwards. They made it through the doors with less than ten seconds to spare.

It sealed behind them with a dull thud that echoed through her bones as Alice stepped onto the stairs. She could smell fresh air. Feel the breeze of a draft mussing her hair and almost laughed. Or cried. Something.

Between the two of them they made it out of the secret passage into the dining hall but neither really knew how. They were tired and wounded and leaning on each other for support. She let herself drop on the other side and weep long deep body wracking sobs. Alice covered her face with both hands to blot out all the atrocities playing out behind her eyes but they were burnt into her memories. They'd play out as long as she lived over and over again.

Alice felt Matt draw her into his arms. She felt him tremble too and laid her head against his shoulder. "I failed them! I failed them all!" She cried despite his attempts to soothe.

"It's the corporation's fault, Alice. Not yours. We can stop this from spreading. We can make sure they didn't die in vain. They won't get away with this! We can stop- ahh!" Pushing her away Matt grabbed at his arm with a look of mixed terror and pain. The muscles seemed to twitch around where the creature had mauled him as if trying to reject the wound from its surface. Panic rimmed his eyes white as he stared up at her for a split second before his entire body stiffened and arced back in seizure.

Matt started screaming and he didn't stop even as Alice dove for the anti-virus case. She grabbed at the case but it wouldn't open. And Matt was the only one left who knew the codes. She reached for a statuette on a side table and prepared to club the hell out of the locks when suddenly people flooded the mansion through every door around her. Arms grabbed at Alice, dragging her away and something sharp and cold jabbed into her arm. Instant relief- cold and swimmy- flooded her veins. Relief that she'd so readily accept if it wasn't for the black and red Umbrella Corporation logos stitched onto their HAZMAT suits.

"Get away from him!" She yelled but her voice was thick and sluggish. "Get away from him you bastards!" They didn't listen to her. They just jostled her forward and onto a gurney just like they were doing Matt.

Alice watched her friend- her only remaining friend- convulse as they wheeled him away. She half heard someone say something about Matt being moved to the Nemesis project. And then her eyes rolled back and closed..

Paul Basino watched, waited, as orders were shouted out throughout the monitoring station. The first test was a success it seemed despite the monumental death toll. Despite the death of 564 people. Most of the risk assessment team were dead and what life signs there were for Ocampo and Kaplan were weak and thready at best. The stranger they had nothing on, but he'd overheard Doctor Roberta Mathews mention that they were being taken in for observation along with the caretaker Alice.

The Director had ordered that the remainder of the team be retrieved as well as the remains- animated or otherwise- of the rest of the special unit and brought back to the headquarters as well. What would happen to them from there Paul wasn't sure. But he knew that somehow he'd figure a way to find out.

As he stood up and slipped off his headphones to go off shift another man took his place immediately and put them on. In fact the entire team was being replaced as they ebbed out of the room. Being near the end of the movement Paul saw that maps of Raccoon City flashed onto the large monitors that only moments before had shown the Hive's lay out.

Paul glanced down at the console one last time and saw the protocols for some kind of second phase to begin. His blood chilled instantly as one and one came together in his head. They weren't done with the testing. No, that was just the beginning..

At the doorway the floor supervisor took his badge and pass keys the same as she did every day- same plastic grin as well- and a nod as friendly and congenial as a slab of concrete. "You hurry home now." She advised him. "I heard the weather's going to be terrible tonight. It is storm season."

"Yeah, I'll do that." Paul nodded, trying not to let his nervousness show. "Oh- I need to go back to the office real quick and get the forms for the health plan revisions personnel forwarded this morning. Can I hold onto my passkey? I'll turn it in at the main desk."

"No problem." She handed him back his trio of IDs and reached past him for the next person's. He could hear her spouting the same line about the storm coming to the next person as he alone turned right back towards the offices instead of left towards the elevators. There was no way in hell he was going home tonight. No way in hell.

He stepped into his office long enough to grab his laptop bag then headed back out into the hall. He went down to the second level along the same route as he normally would take but didn't take the stairs down from there. He ducked into a supply room and squeezed back into a corner to settle in with his laptop and rearranged several boxes and bags around him for cover.

Paul dialed up his girlfriend after that and begged her to pick up their daughter and leave the city right away with no other stops. He gave her no reason, he simply flat out begged until she agreed and promised to call him later from her mother's three towns away. From there he set up his laptop and started doing what he did best: worming through programming.

He faked an entry into the security logs that stated that Paul Basino left the building at 1845. He ghosted his ID under that of Gail Whitley on the third floor in finance. And after that Paul reactivated his connection to terminal 6-8-9-0-73B in the control room and watched the mayhem unfold. 


	4. The Antiseptic Side Of Purgatory

Disclaimer: This fanfic is written for fun, not profit. I claim no ownership of any of the characters or intellectual properties yadda, yadda, yadda. Thank you everyone for reading my story. I appreaciate your commentary.

-

THREE: The Antiseptic Side Of Purgatory

JD Salinas woke up not himself. Instead it was as if he was trapped inside looking out, buried deep in a rear perspective far away from what was going on around him. He couldn't move or talk or blink. He could barely think because his brain was foggy and muddled, but he could hear quite well.

He heard people talking around him. Saw faces flash in and out of his line of sight. They talked at him but he couldn't answer except for a low keening moan and a sputter or a cough on occasion. Each reaction was scribbled down by the people swarming around him into binders, then they'd try something new. Needles and tubes and electrodes.. Little praises that slowly made more and more sense to him..

One woman in specific he focused on out of the others. She had dark hair- he liked that. And eyes that seemed familiar but they weren't. When she'd laugh the corner of JD's mouth would turn up and the people would grow even more excited. She stirred up something- images of someone that he couldn't quite remember until someone started rattling off information. They said some words- no, a name: Rain. They said Rain. That was the name of the girl that she looked like.

His smile widened further and he laughed like she would laugh. Rain liked to laugh. He'd make her laugh. He wanted to see her but she wasn't there. He turned his head slightly which made the people even more excited and stretched out two fingers in the direction of the woman. His tongue felt thick and clumsy in his mouth. His lips were unmovable, but he managed to shape that name somehow.

"Ayyyy"  
"Erraaaaa"  
"Raaiiii.."

"Rain?" The woman asked, leaning forward a bit more. No, her eyes were wrong. Too light. Not like Rain's.

"Raaaiiiiiuun.." JD repeated.

"That's cognitive!" The woman gasped then turned to face the others. "That's recognition. He has retained memory and rudimentary motor skills beyond reviving. Ladies and gentlemen we've brought him back!"

There was clapping and more notes taken, but JD was confused. Back? Where was he back from? Where was Rain? Why couldn't he move. The last thing he could remember was- no. He couldn't remember anything. He remembered getting dressed that morning. Having breakfast in the lunchroom with Olga and Drew. Then One called them together for a briefing and they went to the house on-

His body twitched and shuddered and his mind instinctively buried more to try and save him from what he couldn't know. It was trying to save its self as much as the man that defined it was trying to make sense of what had happened to him. Had he been badly wounded? Where the fuck was Rain? She wouldn't have left him. Was she hurt, too?

"Do you want to see your friend?" The woman asked, drawing his attention back to her. "It couldn't hurt. The more interaction that he has at this point the more synapses will fire. It'll take years to discover the long-term effects of the infection, but the first few days of recovery- at least in coma patients- are paramount. There shouldn't be any harm in seeing how he reacts."

"Doctor Gilmore isn't finished observing his patient yet. He says it's ill advised to have the patients knowingly mingle before knowing if Salinas will revert when the antibodies weaken." Someone else said in the distance.

That sure as hell didn't sound good. Frustration brought a low growl bubbling up from JD's throat. He willed his arms to move and they did, even if they were clumsy. They were tied down to the gurney but he could raise them enough to see the rows of stitches and bruises and a half dozen IV tubes running into both arms. Frustration gave way to panic and his heart thumped painfully in his chest.

With the adrenaline came another surge of awareness and a flicker of black on black memory. He'd had her hand. His fingers were curled into hers but they were ripping him away as teeth and hands ripped at his body. They'd tore him away from her and she'd screamed. 

The memory was too raw, too consuming, too vivid. He started screaming just as he had then. He called for her. He fought for her. JD ripped the leather cuff- metal railing and all- off the gurney and sent it crashing over onto the cold linoleum floor.

He remembered cold, too. It'd been a brisk day. It'd been cold in the Hive. It'd been cold when he'd finally started to drift towards oblivion. He got to his feet stiffly, slowly. There was strength in him even if he was clumsy. It was honed by instinct and need.

One of the scientists dove for his arm and JD lashed out, unintentionally slicing into the man with the sharp end of the metal strut dangling from the cuff on his wrist. He started to scream as blood stained his white coat red all over his ruined stomach. Blood: JD knew that, too. He'd spilled it. He'd seeped it. He'd hungered for the taste of it. And it egged him on.

Others screamed.  
Shots were fired. Blood spilled. And spilled. And spilled.

In the end JD staggered out of the operating room stiff and tired but driven at the same time. His mind had sharpened in the violence and honed in on what was important: his best friend was missing. He'd lost his team. Someone had done something to him and he wasn't sure what, but he'd be damned if he let it happen to the others, too.

Alarms went off and people scattered. Elsewhere he heard shots ring out and screams of pain and terror. He kept as low a profile as he could while moving through the sterile halls in a blood soaked hospital gown. Luckily there weren't many people around and those that were didn't do much to stop him.

Kaplan had thought he was dead. He'd been wrong. Instead he'd woken up in a hospital in Raccoon City with a hefty number of broken bones and a severe concussion. He wasn't sure how long he'd been there but he really didn't care. The drugs were superb and he was making fine progress.

He started caring again real quick when the sound of semi automatic weapons fire echoed down the halls followed by screams and sick noises that he couldn't identify. All he knew was that lying in bed he was dead meat for sure. So he'd pushed himself to try and sit up- painful, but he'd found that he could.

Chad threw his legs over the side of the bed knowing well and good that they were broken from the casts on both limbs, but he could stand despite the pain. He could shuffle. "Oh screw this!" He told himself and yanked the monitors off. Apparently I'm doing better than the doctor thought. Hopefully well enough to make it out of the hospital and someplace a bit more secure-

His thoughts died when the door swung open and an old familiar face stood in the doorway. Salinas. In the flesh. Covered in blood. In all his zombieness. "Oh son of a bitch.." Chad uttered darkly. He was going to die.

"'aplan 'et's roll.."

Then the zombie's mouth opened and out came words. Intelligent words. But shouldn't he be dead? Chad decided that it was a point to argue later and just followed along. The hall outside was practically empty except for one woman running down a hall behind them screaming as if she were being chased by the hounds of hell. A few moments later her scream cut off abruptly and Chad scooted closer to JD. He seemed unafraid. In the zone. Maybe even a little pissed in that 'you're gonna die you sonuvabitch' scary mode.

As they continued down the hall Chad peeked in each of the room's small observation windows until they came to a branch off holding bigger rooms. Specialty wards Chad realized. But why were there no signs on the walls? Just numbers.

Labs came after that and Chad no longer had even the lingering belief that they were in any kind of hospital. Some of the things housed in there looked like they should have been down in the Hive. Hell.. Some of it probably was. "Wh-what are we looking for exactly?" He asked when JD paused for a moment in his hunt. He seemed to be moving with no rhyme or reason, just threading along like he knew where he should be going.

JD didn't answer. He cocked his head to the side and threw open the doors to an operating suite. At first Chad thought that it was empty until a soft moan emanated from one of the curtained off beds. Salinas threw it aside and moved to the bed, yanking IVs and a whole mess of other strange lines out of the person before Chad ever got close enough to see that the wan weak form in the bed was Rain Ocampo.

She looked just as bad as she had back on the train: pale, sickly, weak. But she'd gotten the anti-virus just like he had. Was it not working? Had it been too late? How damn long had they all been there?

JD lifted her up as if she was nothing more than a limp rag doll and cradled her into his arms. They seemed bigger- or maybe she was smaller. The whole damn scene was too fucking surreal!

They headed back the way they'd came without checking another room or running into another soul. They reached what looked like some kind of ward supervisor's area full of charts and monitors and monitoring stations only to run into a wild eyed Alice armed with a surgical saw. She looked just as shaken as Chad felt. And if it wasn't for the fact that Chad was there to call his attention to himself she looked like she'd have dove across the desk and attacked JD dead on.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Chad yelled, holding up both hands. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I don't think this is the best place to hang around and discuss it all, okay? We need to get out of here and find someplace safe to fall back to, okay? Right?"

He looked from JD with his almost stone like expression to Alice who was caught between fight or flight mode. They stared at each other for a moment then Alice held up a chart and waved it at Chad. "We've got to find Matt first. He's here somewhere. We need to get him out of here, too."

Salinas grunted. Alice stared. Chad shrugged in response. "Right. Any of the rest of us here?" He had a feeling that One and company wouldn't be found as they were little more than lunchmeat left on the bottom of the Vault floor but it didn't hurt to ask. She shook her head no.

"Okay then. What room then?" Could you really argue with Alice? Especially when she was the only one of the three with any kind of weapon in her hands.

"One Thirteen A-" Alice had barely read the words off the chart before JD turned and carefully laid Rain out on the desk. She gasped for breath, head turning to try and fight against whatever was restricting her throat, then Rain settled again a moment later.

When he straightened back up both Chad and Alice could clearly see the two seeping bullet wounds in JD's torso, but he turned as if they simply weren't there and walked off. The second he was out of earshot Chad's eyebrows raised and his head tilted back. "We've crossed into the Twilight Zone. What the fuck is going on? JD's freakin' dead!"

"I don't know!" She hissed back. Both hands threaded through her hair in the same gesture he'd seen her do before.

"Are there files on all of us? Grab the files- we'll take them with us." Chad told her as he put a hand to Rain's forehead. She was burning up with fever and the touch made her stir, but again she didn't wake up. She seemed too weak to. "We need to find out what's wrong with her. Maybe we'll luck out and it'll be something like pneumonia."

"Do you think anything- anything tied to the Umbrella Corporation could be that benign?" Alice held up a folder bearing Rain's Name and company ID number under a large corp logo and a series of codes.

Chad cursed softly and rubbed at his forehead. "We're all gonna die." He muttered darkly. "We're all gonna die."

Rifling through the desk Alice found a few things that bore merit aside from the files. There was a bottle of aspirin and a small first aid kit, a variety of over the counter medicines and small handgun with one extra clip. There was a tote bag tucked in between the desk and the wall with a set of keys, a car alarm control and a Kia logo on the key fob. Every thing else except for the wallet and half a pack of spearmint gum were dumped on the floor and her findings shoved in.

Alice shouldered the bag then picked up the saw again. She'd never considered herself a particularly violent person, but in the last few days she couldn't feel at ease without something dangerous gripped in her hands and the rest of the universe knowing she had it, would use it and had no compunctions about doing so.

She leaned against the desk that Rain was sprawled out on and waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. She started getting antsy that JD hadn't returned, but neither had the sound of gunfire. It was silent in an unsettling way that tended to pick at the mind and make you jump at shadows. Where was everyone and what the hell was going on?

The ward cameras showed vastly nothing except proof that something violent had occurred. There was blood or in some cases corpses- pieces of corpses- littering the halls and rooms. Some twitched long after their death throes had passed: that told Alice all too well that they'd be rising soon. Aside from the soon to be walking dead there didn't seem to be anyone left roaming around the.. hospital?

JD appeared on one of the cameras a few minutes later half carrying Matt in his arms and she breathed a sigh of relief. Matt's head was up and his eyes were open. He looked as if he was talking to JD but the man wasn't answering. He was just staring forward at the doors at the end of the hall. If it wasn't for the fact that she'd seen his chest rise and fall- that there was blood seeping instead of congealed blood oozing from the wounds to his side she'd have popped a bullet into his brainpan the minute he'd entered the room.

He should have been dead. But so should Chad and Rain and Matt. They all should be dead, yet somehow they were walking around in no man's land in starchy hospital gowns and bare feet. Alice would have liked to think that she owed him the benefit of the doubt that he'd somehow be okay, but she didn't. She owed herself the ability to survive first. And if that meant shooting JD to save the others lives then that was exactly what she'd do.

"..The virus had to get out somehow.." She finally said to Kaplan. The silence between them was driving her mad and the only other noise was Rain's labored breathing.

"Maybe it came with us. Could we have done this?" Chad shrugged as if to answer his own question. "I doubt that very seriously. Umbrella's too careful. They'd have incinerated us if that was the case. They wanted it out if it got out at all. They'd have let it out. Purposely." He stopped and rubbed at his chin, thinking. "We'll figure it out. We can still stop it. If you and Matt hadn't gotten us all out we wouldn't have that chance, but we do.."

His words trailed off when he looked at her face. The answer was apparent there even before she verbalized the guilty caste to her eyes. "We didn't get you out, Chad. You and Rain were lost. I thought you were lost at least after you were ripped out of the train. And Matt said Rain was dead-" No he hadn't. He'd said nothing, he just urged her on towards the door. She'd still been alive.. Alice covered her mouth with her hand and bit back the sobs that threatened to rise in her throat again. They'd left them behind to die.

Kaplan didn't say a thing. He just turned to face the other way and was silent again until JD and Matt appeared through the west hall doors. "I take it you all missed me?" Matt called out as they limped into the room together.

Alice couldn't help but smile. She had. For all they'd been through he still was able to flash that cocky grin when the rest of them were tired eyed and wary. JD carried him over to the desk and unceremoniously dumped Matt where he could lean on the desk for support. He picked Rain up again and simply held her as if waiting to be told what to do next.

"Game plan A: get out of Dodge now?" Kaplan asked. He helped Matt stand straight by throwing an arm around him, nodding for Alice to take make the call. She did however odd it still felt. Out of a team of three highly skilled trained and tested commandos why was she the one naturally rising to take the lead?

"I've got a set of keys. All we've got to do is find where the car is and we've got transportation. We're not getting too far with most of us only semi mobile if we don't have a car. It's got auto locks though and an alarm. That should help us find it quicker." Alice opened the door to the front lobby and stopped dead in her tracks. The front of the building was all glass windows- or at least once had been. One panel was shattered open to let the freezing wind in.

Beyond it the city was all too clearly in ruins. Cars littered the streets- some tipped or on fire or simply left abandoned. Storefronts were smashed open. Only two figures were visible in the naked yellow glow thrown by the streetlights on the road and from the way they moved neither were alive any longer.

"Oh my god.." Alice barely whispered. It wasn't over. She so desperately wanted it to be over and it was just starting all over again. Part of her mind shut down and hardened to protect its self. It spun the gears towards surviving not breaking down into hysterical tears. There just wasn't time for that. The T-virus had escaped somehow and Raccoon City was probably nothing more that a mass morgue full of infected corpses.

A hand gripped her arm: Matt. He urged her forward again and she shook the touch off almost angrily. "We need to go." He whispered urgently and Alice was on the move again. She stepped out past the broken glass into the windy night and hit the unlock button on the key ring. Across the mostly empty parking lot in front of the building Alice saw interior lights flick on and heard an alarm disabling. She rushed them towards the little black Sportage parked at the far end of the lot. They'd figure out where to go to next once they were out of the open. 


	5. City In Ruins

I own none of the characters portrayed thus far in the story or properties of Resident Evil. Just writing the story for fun. Thank you folks who are reading this. Drop me a line and let me know what you think. And thank you Leah for being so excited over the story.

-

FOUR: City In Ruins

Driving through the city was like driving through a war zone. Everywhere was destruction and devastation. There was nothing to stop it. No one to put the fires out. The only break was the space between city streets where the empty road would catch the falling sparks and snuff them out.

The people that wandered the streets moved slowly, aimlessly. Their eyes were dead and their mouths gaped open in anticipation of food. They made a low moan when their attention was caught that could raise into a keening wail but nothing sensible. Or human. Nothing that would show a remnant of humanity inside the shells that once housed them.

Chad was almost in tears as they drove through- literally- ruined neighborhoods. Ruined people. Old, young, healthy, ill: the affliction wasn't choosy. There were children wandering amongst the shamblers. Elderly that drug themselves along. Pieces of people who were probably ripped to shreds by hungry hordes that sought to do the same to another unfortunate soul. It was more nightmarish them the scenes he'd seen of Kosovo or Iraq. More mind bending than anything he'd ever faced.

Even in the Hive there was a certain amount of sanctity. There was no youth to pervert with the T-virus. There was a contained environment, not the expanse of a city. Maybe a county. A state. A country. Here it could spread and spread and spread with a limitless hunger that might very well destroy all of mankind. They could be the last people alive in the city. Or even the state. How the hell would they know, much less manage to find survivors?

They'd be hiding, not wandering the streets. And what of the government? When would the bombs come to wipe out the city? The kill teams sent to neutralize the threats? Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.. was all Chad could think of. They had to get out of there.

Alice led them to the address listed on the license of the woman who had owned the vehicle they'd been using. It was close to the center, which was the only reason why they'd picked it. Just close enough that they could take a few hours to put their heads together and think of what to do and where to go next.

She'd hit the button that'd opened the garage and secreted them away from the eyes and ears of any of the undead neighbors. The Sportage was left to run while she and JD checked the place out and while he and the others stayed inside waiting for the all clear. The place turned out to be empty, but not terribly defendable. So the first good hour was spent shoring up windows and doors and making sure that they had an escape route clear. Their passage through the neighborhood had drawn out a few dead, but nothing that they couldn't avoid so long as they didn't draw further attention to themselves. That meant no light in a room with a window. No loud noises. And no going outside. Not that he'd want to.

Chad grabbed up the paper left half open on dining room table and poured over it while the others searched for supplies. Ramifications of a city left unattended echoed in his mind. Power plants left without operators. Utility companies. Food and water and sewage..

"Looters and rioters fill the streets," he read out loud as the others drug a mattress in from one of the bedrooms to the center of the house. They settled Rain down on it next to Matt who tucked the blankets around her still form. "The city is in panic while under siege by a wave of viral warfare similar to the Ebola Virus. Government officials have closed all entry and exit ways to the city in an attempt to control the rapidly spreading epidemic from infecting surrounding towns. God damn it they killed the whole city!"

He threw the paper down and stalked around the room nervously. How were they going to get out of a city under lockdown? If they reached a checkpoint could they even pass it?

"We'll figure it out." Alice assured them as if she could sense his thoughts. She shoved a sandwich and a soda into his hands that she'd salvaged from the fridge. "Eat: you'll need your strength."

"If we could find a computer maybe we could notify someone that we're alive in here. We could tell them that we're okay and to pick us up by helicopter or meet us at point A to let us through the wall. Is there a home computer? A laptop? Internet?" Chad rattled questions off that were met with a shrug.

"I don't know. Take a look if you want to." She wandered back into the kitchen to get food for the others. Chad left his sandwich on the table untouched. He hadn't the stomach to eat.

Sure enough in the home office was a sleek little laptop with an air card and a standard OS operating system. It wasn't even close to the caliber of quality as the corp had offered, but it was good enough to serve basic purposes. It connected to the internet and therefore gave him a voice.

News sites showed graphic pictures of Raccoon City during the first three days of the infection. Then the pictures tapered off. It was now day 5. He searched site after site of stories and galleries for something- anything- proclaiming that help was coming but they all gave the same chilling decree: Raccoon City was a graveyard.

The virus was thought to be contained except for unconfirmed outbreaks that were so far chalked up to paranoia. But how the hell did you think you may or may not have ran into the walking dead? Wasn't it obvious? Chad scrubbed at his face with his hands and kept on searching.

People had sent in pictures and stories. They had email addresses displayed and lists for people with family in Raccoon City to contact their loved ones for news. He emailed every one of them. He sent letters out to any news site looking for stories pertaining to the outbreak explaining what had happened and why, but more importantly that they were still alive: send help!

Alice settled onto the couch with a sandwich in her lap and both hands wrapped around a cup of hot coffee. She'd brought Matt over to sit next to her when it became glaringly obvious that JD wasn't going to let anyone look after Rain aside from himself. It was almost painful to watch him try and coax broth down the woman's throat when all she did was cough it back up again. Afterwards he'd dutifully try again.

Something in him was dead: she didn't doubt that. The expression on his face was lax no matter what the situation was. It didn't match his eyes or his movements. Nor his words when he did utter small clips of sentences that always seemed to cut off prematurely. But he was holding onto something and it seemed to revolve around Ocampo so she let it be so long as he didn't hurt her further.

Matt was obviously worried, too. He was watching them as closely as she was while he rested on the couch beside her sipping at soup. He was weak but seemed to be in good spirits. His mind was still sharp which was a blessing in her book. She needed someone to lean on or she thought she'd go insane.

"He let me bandage up his side." Matt said after a few moments. "It was bleeding.. Maybe not as much as it should have but it was warm and.. normal looking?" He suggested quietly. "Not like the things in the Hive."

"How could he have survived?" Alice asked kept her voice just as low. "There was no way he could have made it through with all those corpses. We saw them tear into him."

"Maybe he was given the anti-virus by someone else down there? What if it wasn't the only batch there? Everyone's taking to it differently. Look at Kaplan and Rain and I. We're doing okay, but man, she's hosed-" Matt swallowed the words that followed when JD's head shot up and stared straight at him from across the room. He'd barely been speaking in more than a whisper and somehow he'd heard.

The glare he'd shot at both of them made something in Alice's blood freeze. He scooped Rain up into his arms and stood with that same hollow expression on his face. "Cleaning her up.." He declared and shuffled off towards the rear of the house like a creature from a monster movie carrying off the object of his affection.

"That's just fucking creepy." Matt commented once he heard a door close. He gave her an apologetic shrug and shook his head. "What the hell did they do to him?"

"I think we can all use that answer. What about you? The last thing I remember you were convulsing on the ground and your muscles were twitching like something was inside your arm.." Alice winced when she realized what she'd said, but honestly there wasn't much that could make their situation any worse.

He rolled up his sleeve and showed her his arm. Aside from a pale thin outline where the creature had scratched him it looked normal. Felt normal. Alice sighed in relief. "Are you okay though?" He asked, reaching up to touch a bare patch along the side of her temple where the hair was shorn away to skin and small dots of blood were dried along it.

"I-I don't know really. I don't remember any of it. Just waking up and fighting my way out of the lab. Then I ran into Chad and the others.." Alice's voice tapered off and she looked down at her hands wrapped around the coffee mug. "We left them to die back there, didn't we? Did you know that Rain was still alive?"

Matt sighed. His hand twitched as if he wanted to reach out to her but held back at the last moment. "Alice we could barely get ourselves out of there. If we'd stopped to try and help her none of us would have escaped. It was a harsh decision but the right one. Everything that's happening now out there in Raccoon City: we were trying to stop this, remember? We were trying to save everyone else, not just ourselves. She'd have wanted that even if we didn't give her the choice. You know that."

Alice could accept that. Despite being a smarmy pain in the ass there was a noble streak to Rain that she wouldn't have believed was there if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. Just like she wouldn't have believed in Kaplan's courage. Or Matt's determination.. She honestly didn't know JD to question what aspects had grown from him. Now she saw loyalty or dedication or some twisted kind of love and friendship. But whatever it was Matt was right: it creeped her out, too.

"Don't tell them. I don't want to go into what happened unless we have to, okay? Once this is all over we can reunite 5 years later in Vegas and drink and laugh and spill skeletons from our closets. But until then just let it be, okay?" She made a point of squeezing his hand and showing that there was no bad blood between them.

He grinned, but it was thin and short lived. "You think that even if we get out of this that the corp. won't hunt us down and kill us Alice? The virus is a weapon. Unless we can bring them down and all of their subsidiaries in one great swoop we'll be hunted until we die. There won't be a 5 years from now in Vegas. There won't be a 5 months unless we find some answers and bring back irrefutable proof that all this happened because of them. It's got to hit the media hard and every high-ranking official from here to Japan. We've got to make it happen."

She nodded numbly, feeling like she'd just offered herself as a lamb to the slaughter. He was right: it wasn't over. And it never would be until Umbrella was brought down. They'd have to go for the heart of the beast but to do that they'd need to know where to look for it. That meant combing through whatever remained of their headquarters in Raccoon City, maybe even the mansion and the Hive for answers..

Chad hurried back into the room, turned around once as if asking where the others had gone to, but didn't bother to ask. "I've got good news and bad news." He told them in an almost breathless flurry. "Bad news first: we're not getting any help any time soon. All roads leading out of the city are barricaded off and anyone trying to get out are kind of screwed, blued and tattooed 'cause officials are shooting first and asking questions later. Good news however is that we're not alone. I found a few people through the internet that are still here in the city hunkered down. All we've got to do is get a hold of them and we've got some extra hands and eyes to get us through this. I've got one of them on instant messenger right now."

He grinned as if waiting for applause only to be met by openmouthed stares. "What?" He asked, looking behind himself just to be sure that nothing had crept in behind him.

"We've got to go to the corporate offices here in Raccoon City. We've got to start the ball rolling now. Think you can get us in Mister Computer Genius Kaplan?" She watched him take a step back and shake his head no.

"No way. There's no fucking way are you dragging me back any where near anything dealing with that company ever again. I swear to God I'd rather die first." Kaplan hugged the laptop he was carrying to his chest like armor. "We can find another way out of the city."

Alice smiled sadly. He wasn't the fool out of all of them: that was for sure. But Matt was right: it had to be done. "Let Matt talk to you. He'll convince you in no time." 


	6. Nightmares Like Wishes Do Come True

I'm sure you all get the disclaimery notion by now, right? This chapter is for Rich and Brent. Rich for the diving inspiration and Brent for arguing why Home Depot is not the place to make your stand.

-

FIVE: Nightmares Like Wishes Do Come True

She was dreaming.

For Rain the world was a monotone mix of black and white and various shades of gray. Trapped under glass unable to move she could see the crowd gathered around her of nameless faceless sterile people. She'd cried out to them- begged them- but they registered no emotion. They didn't say a word, they simply slid more tubes in along her sides and jabbed them into her flesh where she couldn't reach them.

Rain screamed and screamed but the tubes kept burrowing into her sides, punching through skin and muscle and tissue like drills. She screamed until the darkness blotted out all sensation. And then came warmth. Immersion. Sensation. She felt before her conscious mind began to register that what was happening to her wasn't a part of the dreams she'd been locked in for what felt like forever.

Someone had carefully wrapped her in something soft and maneuvered her into a semi fetal position when something in the hazy mess that her mind had become told her to open her eyes. The first thing she saw was a patch of color: lilacs surrounded by delicate lace. Beyond it were creamy colored walls and a dresser made of dark wood.

A hand curled around her cheek and turned her face to look up into dark brown eyes. Weathered face bruised and weary. Beaten down. Defeated. JD..

It had to still be a dream she thought but the pain in her chest, the weakness in her limbs simply felt too real. She barely had the strength in her arms to lift a hand to touch his face, follow the curve of his jaw with her fingertips, confused.

JD was dead.

But he was sitting there with her, half curled behind her, watching over her.

He was dead.

When he raised his hand to catch hers the movement was clumsy and the marks on his arm- stitches, gouges, black mottled bruises- were evident proof of what had happened to him. Her eyes widened. Her body stiffened. Rain's brain couldn't process what the hell was going on. Her mouth opened and a ragged breath escaped as he took her fingers and raised two of the five before pressing them to her lips to quiet her. "I've got you.." He more croaked then said as if the words had collected dust in his throat he'd held them so long. "Keep you safe. Promise.."

If there was anything that Rain could believe it was those words. She'd never doubted that he would before and even now- even after death- he was there with her. Releasing her hand he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her flush against him. JD's knees curled up under hers. His back bowed following the curve of her back. His head lowered and his chin tucked just inside the dip of her shoulder. Rain could feel his breath tickling at her ear.

He was alive. This was wrong. Surreal. She had to be dreaming still.

Rain clutched at the arm that crossed over her chest and held it tightly to her. Somehow he'd lived and he'd found her. "I'm sorry.." She started to say but she started coughing too much to continue.

"Won't let go again.." he told her, squeezing her just a bit closer.

I won't either. She twined her fingers with his and closed her eyes. She didn't want to sleep- to dream- ever again but she was too weak to stay awake for too long yet. Her grip remained tight around his hands long after she had drifted off into unconsciousness.

Weren't they a sight Matt thought as he looked around the table. Kaplan tapping away at the laptop while Alice stuffed a few more items into the tote she'd taken from the medical center. Rain and JD were joined at the hip and seemed to almost literally be holding each other up as they sat there. If it were almost any other situation he might have laughed at the seeming normalcy of the scene, but it was anything but normal.

Their only source of light for the room was a heavily shaded lamp set on the floor of the kitchen and what dim illumination that Chad's computer cast. The table was littered with knives and first aid kits and lighters any anything else that might be used as a weapon as they planned as best as they could what to do.

They poured over street maps and office directories and every other scrap of information that Kaplan could give them only to come up with the same answers: they were under provisioned, under prepared and nowhere near armed enough to take on anything that Umbrella Corp might throw at them after what they'd seen in the Hive. They needed more manpower and weapons and armor- not to mention a few miracles on their side.

"So let me get this straight.." Matt asked, scratching at his stubbled chin. "You want us to raid a shopping center, hit the medical center we woke up at, the HQ on 42nd Street and then possibly the Hive again?" Chances were they wouldn't get out of the center again much less get out of the city. Being geared up would make a load of difference. But at a Wal-Mart? "Why not a police station or a real gun shop? Something like that? Why the hell a Wal-Mart?"

Kaplan sighed and rolled his eyes. "Police stations and hospitals are the worst place you'd want to be during a zombie invasion. All the sick or hurt or dying people would be taken to emergency facilities first, meaning that they'd be the first places to be over run by the infection. Next would be the grocery stores, home repair shops and gun dealers. People in panic would flock to them next in the first waves or during the lootings which means each of those would likewise be overrun."

"Now I'm not expecting Wal-Mart to be much better but I'm saying it's our best bet for two reasons: A- it's on our way and B- they usually have big glass doors up front. Big enough to drive the car through. We can literally drive through most of the store and be in and out with minimal exposure so long as we keep our eyes open." He pointed to Rain on that note. "And we can't exactly drag her out into a fray until she gets more of her strength back. This lets her stay in the car without looking like a Christmas ham to 70 or 80 zombies."

Matt's eyes immediately went to JD but the man just loomed quietly with Rain curled half into his shoulder. She on the other hand flipped Chad off. At least that was getting back to normal. "Sounds fair." Rain cleared her throat to try and stave off a coughing fit. She'd gained a bit of color back in the last few hours and a bit more strength, but she was still sickly.

"So your buddies'll meet us at the center. We'll toss 'em a few shotguns and show 'em how to hip aim. Lock, load and raid a few offices. Pretty firm as far as I can see. What about getting out of the city though? Any ideas yet? Looking at your map we've got a waterway here to the west that cuts through a chunk of the city. You've got the Arklay Mountains here. Raccoon Forest.." She pointed out the landmarks on Chad's screen with an unsteady hand. "I don't suggest we use a boat to travel on the water if you're saying that anyone not connected to the CDC is going the gun happy on survivors. We can try and make it through the mountains maybe? Gas up, take off. Go by foot if it gets to be too much for the whatever it is that we're driving?"

"We can steal an SUV if it helps. We'll probably need it for provisions alone for a trip like that. Maybe two depending on how many people we hook up with. I agree though that we have to skip the main roads until we can get out of the general area. If we're pulled over we could have real issues. Even after that we'll need to lay low and play dead until Umbrella isn't looking for us anymore. That shouldn't be too hard with some of your training, we'll just find a big enough metropolis and-" Alice stopped mid sentence when Chad shook his head.

"I uhh didn't mention it but there's been some cases now that may be linked to what happened in the city. Little pocket outbreaks.. That's what the CDC's been working on. There was a dog bite and a fox attack so it's not just people that got out. We may get out of the city just to walk into another lock down. There's a good chance that we might have to be on our own for quite some time.." Kaplan's voice trailed off. He gave an apologetic shrug. "Sorry to be the bearer of bad news guys."

Matt covered his face with one hand and sighed. He'd seen Alice freeze and stare at Chad just before he'd closed his eyes. Damn if he didn't know just how she felt.

"So what do we do?" He heard her say. "Is it time to just fucking roll over or not? We can beat this still! We may be the only way to beat this!" When he opened his eyes Alice had hold of JD's hand and was talking to him directly. "Most of us if not all have had the anti-virus in our systems now. We've got records from the medical center. Maybe we can get more even. The cure could be inside our very bodies right now! I'm not giving up!"

She looked at each of their faces until she stopped on Matt's, almost pleading. "Come on.. We can do this. We've made it through once with only one way to go. With this many options how much harder could it be?"

JD made an odd sounded that could have been a cough. He rubbed at his eyes and his jaw loosened out of the tight set grim line it'd been since the medical center. It softened his face enough that he almost looked normal. Maybe things were looking up if the dead man walking was suddenly looking more GQ.

He and Rain drew closer and talked softly for a moment as if the rest of the room wasn't there. To counter the awkwardness Kaplan cleared his throat and pointed back at the screen again. "All right. So one last time here's the path then I'll send out the emails that we're on our way. This should take us no more then half an hour. I'm assuming that we don't want to stay anyplace too long or we risk drawing too many bodies, right? Right."

News Channel 12's star reporter Elizabeth Ellis certainly wasn't looking her best. Her long blonde hair which was usually straightened and brushed to a silky luster was dull and streaked with dried brackish blood. Her full lips, once known for blood red sexy sneers hung loose at one corner where the skin had torn to reveal a mouth full of decaying teeth and bits of drying tissue and yellow bone. High cheek bones- once a prized family trait- were exposed on the left side of her face, as was the empty groove where her ear used to sit. The skin and flesh along the side of her neck was missing, making a strand of fresh water pearls pool half inside the gaping spot obscenely stained with old blood. Once blue eyes now a clouded over paste white.. If you squinted just right she almost looked normal leading the herd of undead wandering aimless through the store. From the side she looked nearly perfect and the others were merely adoring her as most did. Maggie wanted to reach out to touch her hair one more time, but every time the thought came to the forefront of her mind she chased it away. That thing wasn't her mother. It was a monster. A boogeyman. An evil demon sent to make her suffer. A few days before she'd watched her mother and the others tackle a man who came looking for food and tear him to pieces. She'd watched the blood trickle down pouting lips as the woman stuffed bits of him into her mouth and made herself remember again and again that she was no longer mommy. She was evil. She just wore mommy's skin. Maggie couldn't help it if she kept an extra eye on her as she skirted through the store low to the ground. Amidst the knocked over shelves and piles of clutter, rotting bodies and spilled wares she blended in rather well like a tiger with its stripes. She'd seen herself in the mirror once or twice on her rounds and thought that she looked dead as well. Dirty skin and hair and clothes. Her eyes were dark with shadows and her hand mottled with bruises. There were bits of chocolate snack cake stuck to the edges of her mouth that she never bothered to wipe away. Who was going to tell her to go clean up anyways? No one told her not to eat only junk food or to take her vitamins and drink her water to keep her skin smooth and her hair healthy. No one tucked her in or made her change her clothes or made her take a bath. She had to do all that herself now. She ate what she found and brushed her teeth so they wouldn't rot. Took her vitamins so she wouldn't get sick and die and be like them. Kept her clothes because they made her less noticeable than something new would even if she did smell. But everything smelled, so why would it matter? Why did anything matter anymore? All Maggie knew was that she wanted to live. She needed to survive. She was smart and small and quick and would hide in the shelves forever if she had to. One day all the dead things would leave and she would have the store to herself. She'd be the queen of the store. Queen of the world. Maybe the only person left in the world. But she couldn't think like that. Maggie secreted another set of crayons and a coloring book back to her hideout along with a stack of magazines and crossword puzzles. She had to keep her mind sharp since she wasn't in school so she had to read a lot. She settled down with her back against one of the cool metal shelving unit that rung in her nest and quietly started scribbling away at the book on her lap. Her hands weren't steady enough to stay within the lines, but she used bold happy colors. It counted, it did..

She grumbled as her blue crayon broke in her fingers a few moments later. What was left had been reduced to such a tiny stub that it was impossible to do anything but smash it into the paper in bits and grind the curls in with her palm. Now her hands were blue and sweaty and she had a streak across her chin to match the violet one she'd gotten earlier when trying to do the same. It obviously wasn't the day for coloring. Or reading as she was having trouble paying attention to the words too closely. She had to be hungry, she thought to herself, and tucked her dolls Mina and Lisa in her overalls for a trip to the mart. Slinking along- grrrrr- like a mighty panther through the clutter (or more likely like a limping dog trying to act like a mighty panther) the little girl snuck over to the drink aisle and plucked a few juice boxes before continuing on to the corn chips. That was one of the tricky ones to get into. And bag rattled and she hated making noise. Hated it! Hated it! So she cut it carefully with a fancy knife she'd found and snuck enough out to fill her pockets. More crunchies: less noise. She wiped her hands off on the bib of her once red overalls and congratulated herself on another job well done. Maggie turned to head back towards her nest when all of the sudden bright lights sheared through the dimly lit store. There was the brief bark of gunfire followed by glass shattering and an engine revving into gear then suddenly the ball display at the end of the aisle she was standing in went flying into the air. She watched in stunned silence as a big black car roared past the aisle inside the store. 


	7. Clean Up On Aisle Four

This fanfic is written purely for fun. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate it all.

-

SIX: Clean Up On Aisle Four

It didn't take long for the others to find the gun case. Alice had grabbed herself a jacket out of the fishing wares and was stuffing every pocket that she had full of ammunition for the heavy stock shotgun and extra ammo for the Beretta she'd found while sacking the lobby of the medical center. It looked a little odd thrown over the tee shirt and baggy jeans that she'd found rooting through the rooms of the house they'd crashed at but beggars couldn't be choosers.

She peeled a swiss army knife out of its case and slipped it into her back pocket followed by a fairly large hunting knife that she belted to her thigh. Every so often she glanced back at Matt who was standing on top of the Kia to see over the shelves. He was their lookout for zombies in the area and so far everything that they'd have to worry about was on the other side of the store.

Secure in that fact she shouldered the shotgun and wandered a little to grab a backpack, a camp cook stove and a few other things that they'd need for a trek into the mountains. It was only 3 aisles down and well within Matt's line of sight. Alice grabbed a handful of backpacks and started filling them with flashlights, batteries and other assorted goods. Her ears were perked to a conversation one aisle over where Rain was trying to poke a reaction out of JD about getting some changes of clothes for all of them while they were there.

"And food." Chad chimed in from somewhere nearby.

Alice chuckled at that. There was quite a bit that they could use even if they had to travel light. She threaded her arm through the handle of a battery-powered lantern and turned around to check the other row behind her when she became keenly aware that she wasn't the only person in the aisle. It was a small child- maybe eight or nine at most- with matted blonde hair and wide blue eyes.

It was the eyes that stopped her from leveling the shotgun and shooting on knee jerk reaction alone. They were a bright sky blue and blinking as if trying to process way too much information at once. Her jaw was set and her lips pursed as she cleared her throat then squeaked. Her second attempt brought forth a stuttering name. "M-Maggie." She said, pointing to her chest.

Oh my god.. Alice prayed silently. Please god don't let her be infected. She reached out a hand towards the child as she squatted down to eye level with her. From what she could see there wasn't any abrasions but the child was covered in so many layers of crud it was impossible to tell if she was bitten much less what the true color of the shirt under her corduroy overalls was.

The girl reached her right hand out slowly- no doubt terrified- and touched the tips of Alice's fingers. The other stayed at her side twisted and swollen. Probably broken. "Are you bitten? Are you okay? Can I see your hand Maggie?"

"I'm o-okay." Maggie told her and flashed a quick nervous smile. A second later and it was hidden back beneath a worried, guarded veneer. She shuffled a little closer with her head tilting curiously to the side when Matt's voice called out "We've got company folks!"

The girl jumped, startled. Her bright eyes seemed to dim a bit and she snatched her hand away from Alice. "You're too loud. They'll eat you." She hissed and darted out of the aisle as quick and nimble as a small cat.

"No!" Alice dropped the backpacks and tore after the kid, nearly busting her rear on an puddle of some kind of soap that covered the floor. She heard Matt calling after her but she ignored him. Something deep inside of her pushed her to chase after the child. Something maternal. Something raw.

Maggie ran straight towards the back of the store and turned down the frozen foods aisle. Tucked back between the cases in the distance Alice could see a metal door but between them and it was handful of undead. The little girl stopped when she saw them like a deer caught in headlights until Alice's voice broke her from her reverie.

"Back this way!" She called and the girl sped into motion- not towards her- but towards the frozen food case. Maggie crawled in through a broken pane of glass and started scrambling back as far as she could. It gave Alice a clear shot and kept her from getting away: a blessing that she didn't intend to waste. She hip aimed the shotgun and blew away the three zombies before they ever reached her or the girl then turned her attention to the freezer.

Alice threw open the door and leaned inside. It stunk to high heavens on top of being freezing cold. Could there be a worse combination? She grabbed a hold of the toe of one dirty sneaker and started dragging her forward.

"No! No! No! Go away! Go! Gooo!" Maggie screamed and kicked at Alice's hands, scattering boxes. "They'll eat you! I can't go with you!"

"More are coming! We've got to go!" Alice got a firm grip of the ankle and yanked her most of the way out of the freezer. Before the child had a chance to get a handhold on the edge of the door Alice turned the girl to face her and picked her up into her arms. Little arms and legs wrapped around her as Alice swung the shotgun up into her arms to face the next batch of zombies that rounded the corner. She could hear the Sportage nearby and Matt yelling out directions and someone else squeezing off rounds. All she had to do was hold them off for a little bit.

With Matt on the roof and neither of the other two capable of driving, Kaplan jumped in behind the wheel, yelled for Addison to hold on and stepped on the gas. He heard Matt cursing fluently above but it was worth it just for once to be the man at the heart of the rescue. Not the brains behind it, but the one executing it, and to be honest it felt damn good.

Tires squealed on linoleum and he ran a few corpses down as they toddled out of the garden center. That made Matt cuss even louder and he couldn't help but laugh. He was pretty sure that Rain was calling him all kinds of names, too, but none of it was in English so he honestly didn't give a damn.

He forced the Sportage down a wide aisle dotted with small units in the center aisle and gunned it towards Alice and the kid she was holding. Turning tightly he overshot the pair and slid the vehicle sideways to give the others time to get in while they received cover fire from the other side of the car. They climbed in and Matt squeezed in beside them before Chad threw his arm over the back of the seat and threw it in reverse.

The car rammed into the freezer case behind it, then the case in front of it in order to pull off enough of an angle to quickly k-turn around and burn rubber back down the aisles of Raccoon City's Super Wal-Mart.

It was silent in the Kia as they cruised through the ruined town, but that sat just fine with JD. The quiet made it easier for the murky thoughts in his head to surface and process beyond half heard ramblings and emotions that never quite made it past his thoughts. He was content there- ignoring the shambling dead outside the window and the ravaged cityscape- just to have his closest friend's head resting against his shoulder much the same way as the grubby child in Alice's lap hung limply over her arm. It was as if neither had strength. And both gazes blue and brown were drawn out the windows to the wreckage and poison that they quickly and quietly cut through.

"We're gonna have to do it again.." Rain said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that hung over all of their heads. "We've got gear but no food."

Kaplan snorted as he took a turn quickly, brushing by a walking corpse half dragging another. From the corner of his eyes JD could see Alice wince and try to turn the little girl away from the window, but it was a fruitless venture. There wasn't a direction you could face that the same thing didn't stare back in at you hungrily. "Once we get out of the city we can try to restock." Chad commented, dropping the Sportage down a gear.

Rain leaned forward a bit, spots of angry color raising in her cheeks as she gripped the headrest behind Kaplan. "You can't guarantee that. If the epidemic's spreading every Tom, Dick and Harry's gonna be panicking and hording Cheerios and Evian in their basements. We could find nothing but ghost towns wiped clean of everything useful for the next 50 miles. This could be our only chance."

"Look we just can't!" An honest thread of panic raised in the hacker's voice as he glanced back over his shoulder. "Look.. We can't.. just.. Survivors, Rain.. We can't find too many more survivors. We won't be able to protect them all. We're all trained for spec ops and we still didn't make it out of the Hive in one piece. Do you think we could take care of thirty or so Jim the barbers and Mary the waitresses? We'd just watch them die. They'd be grist for the mill. We've got the folks meeting us at the medical center and even that's a lot to try and look after.."

"Shut up Kaplan.." Alice warned, hugging the girl a little tighter to her.

"You know what Chad?" JD's ears perked to the dangerous tone in Rain's voice. She'd leaned back into the seat next to him, one sneakered foot planting into the seat at his back. "I say anyone that's got the balls to stand and fight deserves the right to. Bring 'em on. They could die. We could die. The whole fucking world could die. But at least we'd have put up a good fight in the meantime. It isn't about who's elite and who's pedestrian anymore, Kaplan. It's who's still got the will to survive."

"Nobody's gonna." The girl in Alice's arms whispered. "We're all ready dead. We just don't know it yet."

Again Kaplan huffed from the driver's seat. "Great, Alice. Of all the kids to find you grabbed a maudlin pessimist in pigtails-"

"Can we just please focus here?" Matt interrupted from the passenger seat. "We need to finish our prep and get the job done. That includes us finishing stocking up and meeting up with the others at the appointed time. No more deviations from the plans, all right?"

"Now according to our maps there's a Chevy dealership up ahead on the north side of the street. We hit that for our transportation and we scout for a convenience store nearby. We make use of what's around us. Why am I having to tell you this?" Shaking his head, Matt leaned against the window and sighed.

He was answered by silence from inside the vehicle. 


	8. New Recruits

Introducing a few more new characters now so aptly described as more grist for the mill. Enjoy folks. And again --insert disclaimery stuff--

-

SEVEN: New Recruits

Two shiny new vehicles pulled up in front of the medical center on Pine Street and out of them poured a number of people locked down and armed for bear with the exception of a little girl. They'd scrubbed the child up in the car lot's bathroom and dressed her in a little romper that Matt had found in a convenience store they'd raided, but there was something about the kid's hollow eyed stare that really sat badly on Rain's nerves. She hadn't been infected, just bruised to hell and sporting a now bandaged broken hand. Understandably she was in shock. But there was something almost feral to those sky blue eyes like there was a wildcat inside the kid just waiting to spring out.

The woman pushed it from her mind as they pulled up to the medical center one after the other, trucks falling into line that mostly blocked off the building's entrance to lessen the chance of straggling corpses wandering in. She cocked the pistol she'd been given and tucked it into the waist of her jeans as she stepped out of the truck into the balmy night air. There was a scent of the wind that didn't belong- beyond the stink of death and the ash from the fires. That, too, was shoved off to the side of her mind.

Rain focused her mind on taking the building- as her mind was the soundest part of her person at the moment- and once again let JD support her as they moved inside the building. The folks they were supposed to meet would be waiting in the ward supervisor's area. Surrounded by cameras and lockable doors according to Kaplan. Eight he had said he'd talked to online, but only three were there waiting and none of them looked that much like the commando type in her opinion.

In fact they locked in on her and JD right off the bat and took a step back even with Chad canting that they were safe, just wounded. She wouldn't say that. Hell, she'd probably have warned them away. Despite the fact that she was growing stronger little bit by little bit, Rain still felt as if that dark whispery illness was sitting coiled in her belly. Her bones were cold. Her skin was still clammy. Fever flashing in and out left her feeling drained and unusually lucid. She was ill with.. something. And whatever it was she feared the answer.

Kaplan had read the files then secreted them into his pack. He'd said they'd all be fine, but she knew his 'I'm feeding you a line of shit' look all too well. For the moment at least she appreciated his version of the story and held tight to her resolve that one way or another they were getting out of this hellhole.

"They're infected?" The older man said, pointing towards her and JD as they crossed the room. The sharpness in his voice drew her attention as JD lowered her into a chair.

"We're all infected. The virus is airborne and each one of us carry it within us once we're exposed." Alice spearheaded the explanation before Chad could somehow stick his foot in it as usual. "There's a cure though. There's a cure- And each one of us have been injected with it. We're trying to get data on the corporation and the cure so that everyone infected with the virus still living can be cured and the company responsible can be.." Alice paused. Rain could almost see the words behind her eyes starting with annihilated and working its way down the alphabet. "Dealt with."

"So there's no hope for them?" The older man swept his arm out to indicate the rest of the city. He had concrete on his boots and pants, Rain realized after a moment. Noting the detail pleased her to no end. Her vision was finally beginning to clear.

Alice and Matt turned to look at JD. Rain did, too, finding him simply staring down at her. It was beginning to set her nerves on edge. She'd always loved having his attention, but this was a bit too much. Like he'd transfixed on her and that was all his brain could wrap around unless he was told to do differently.

"There may be. If there is chances are we'll find it here." Alice said after a moment. She looked around the many faces then gave a nod as if that cemented the wary truce between all of them. "I'm Alice. This is Matt, Chad, JD, Rain and Maggie. We're happy as hell to meet you.."

Three years ago in the spring Sonya Rojas had learned that she was dying. Cancer, she'd been told, was eating away at her brain and spinal column. Glioma it was called: such a pretty name for a deadly disease. Her lifespan was cut down to one short year and she'd made it three. Two miracle years past her doctor's expectations- in fact she'd outlived her doctor- only to end up in hell on earth with a bunch of soldier types, a construction worker and a delivery boy. There was so much irony in the situation.

Seated in a rolling chair as she thumbed through computer files, she tried her best to find and zip everything she could onto the handful of flash drives that Chad Kaplan had dumped into her lap. Once each one was full she stuck it on a chain around her neck that used to hold her charms. Now it held something much more important. It held clues that could save humanity.

Sonya could half hear the conversation going on from the doorway between Matt and Robert from where she sat and the sound helped her not loose her mind as she read through notes on experiments that she could only describe as cruel and inhumane.

"This floor's clean. Looks like they originally came in through the back when the door locks failed. All but the staircases on either sides of the building are locked down and they're visible on cameras C and G. We'll have Danny watch 'em since he's too afraid to go on up. Whattya think?" Rob asked, scratching at his shaggy beard with hands the size of bear paws.

Matt shrugged his shoulders as he looked back down the hall. "Might as well." He responded dryly. "We can't give him a gun and take him up with us if he's more likely to shoot one of us than one of them. Are you okay with this?"

"I've got a kid in Kensington that I want to see again, Matt. I'm okay with anything that gets me back to him and helps him stay safe. If that means firin' on what used to be people then that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm makin' it back to my son." Rob walked away after that, leaving Matt to his thoughts.

The man came up to stand behind her shortly afterwards and leaned in on the desk next to her. "You holding up okay, Sonya?"

She nodded mutely in response, at a loss of what to say. No she wasn't okay. She wanted to blink her eyes and have everything go back to normal. Maybe come to at her desk instead of sitting in a mock hospital going over files on human mutations. Or better yet it could all be a hallucination brought about by a tumor putting pressure on her brain and thousand or more people weren't dead.

"Keep a stiff upper lip. We'll get through it." He told her and rubbed her shoulder lightly before moving off.

Sonya wished she could believe him.

Daniel Fletcher watched from the security station as the team moved through the second floor with an almost preternatural grace. He was in awe of how smoothly they moved in tandem. It was like watching an action movie: especially with the lady soldier sitting next to them giving them heads up over a couple of walkie talkies filched off of dead guards.

They were so cool and confident- even the teacher and the welder were keeping their cool and stalking around up there with hand guns- but him? He was a coward. Cowards lived and heroes didn't: that was the universe as he'd known it.

When the zombie plague erupted he'd hidden out on the roof of the pizza place that he'd worked at. He'd seen plenty of people rush out and try to help others at first, but shortly after that it was just everybody run for your life. Nobody he'd text messaged or left messages for came to get him. Nobody returned his calls. All his friends and his mom and even his brother were all dead and gamey and him.. He was sitting behind a bunch of video screens with a hot Spanish chick even if she did seem like she had a bad case of the flu.

Every once in awhile Dan saw her eyes focus and unfocus. Or she'd cough and put a hand to her chest as if it hurt. Then she'd glare at him and sip at the soda he'd found her and growl that if he tried to touch her leg again she'd shove his head up his ass. How hot was that? A bitch that back talked. The nice guys really did come in last.

With a yawn Danny tried to stretch out an arm behind her and managed to slip it in unnoticed as Rain focused in on the screens with the single-mindedness of a lioness on the hunt. He watched her follow light and shadow with some difficulty and give warnings more on movement than what she could make out.

"There.." She said, tapping at the screen. "What is that?"

He leaned in close enough to press his body up against hers and peered over her shoulder. She smelled kind of spicy. Totally hot. "I dunno. Something in a tank, maybe. Kinda looks like a squid or somethin'. But it's big."

Rain elbowed him sharply enough that he took a step back then thumbed the radio's call button. "There's a tank in the next lab with something in it. Dan says it's a big octopus looking thing. There may be more tanks.."

"Kaplan and Sonya say that according to JD's files he was in that room twice. We're checking it out anyhow. Watch our six." Matt responded after a moment of radio static. Not a second later there was a crashing noise from somewhere outside the room and Rain instantly turned to face Dan with wide dark eyes.

"What was that?" She demanded in a whispery voice.

"How am I supposed to know-" Dan began to say, but she was talking over him before he finished the first syllable.

"You were supposed to be watching the third set of cameras, that's how!" She hissed, pushing her chair back and at an angle so she could clearly see the bank of cameras that covered the first floor sweeps. Sure enough a handful or more tottering dead had wandered in, drawn probably by their movement through the city. "Fuckin' great!" She spat. "Congratulations, chump. We've just been blind sided because you couldn't watch eight damn screens."

Danny's eyes widened as he saw the creatures moving across the monitors. His spine felt like it was trying to crawl up into his head and he was suddenly chilled to the bone. Watching her flick the safety off his gun he suddenly realized that he wasn't safe there with her. She'd shoot it out. Try to keep them off the stairs so that the rest of them could come back down en masse like a freakin' street parade. She'd get him killed if he stayed there and she wasn't that cute. The second she turned her back he threw open the door to the security station and ran.

Kaplan stared at the thing in the tank with a morbid sense of curiosity. It resembled a Lovecraftian creation more than the man its files stated that it was. Once it was known as Mark Tanner. Now it was just half a human whose torso ended in long ringed tentacles. The skin had become a pasty white that bled into a bruised ugly purple. No visible eyes. No mouth that he could see. Just slits for eyes that were closed forever in death's holy slumber.

According to the files Mark- experiment 37F was terminated the day before they escaped the medical center after being proclaimed a failure. That answered another of Chad's burning questions as to why the city was inundated with a killer virus and somehow the people of the medical center weren't involved: they knew it was coming.

Stocked up, battened down and ready for the impending doom, they continued their experiments the entire time in a now sterile environment. There was nobody left to find out about their dirty little secrets. No one to stop them. So they got down and dirty with a handful of projects that'd make Tarantino's skin crawl.

He turned to examine the next piece when Rain's voice crackled over the radios on Alice and Matt's hips. "We've got a security breach. At least a dozen shamblers coming in through the east entrance. They had to breach through the fortifications you put up Matt."

Alice grabbed up her radio and responded before Matt could. Her reflexes continued to impress him. "You should be pretty safe in the security station. Just hunker down and keep Danny quiet and we'll re-sweep as we move down. Keep monitoring our position."

"Can't." Was Rain's acidic response. "Danny took off. I've got to find the stupid fucker 'fore he gets himself killed."

Chad watched the non-verbal communication shoot between Alice and Matt and wasn't the only one who noticed it. He saw Sonya put a hand to her mouth and Rob look down at his boots.

"Negative, Rain. Hold your position." Alice barked. "Monitor our progress. The kid's on his own. It's his choice."

He couldn't help but agree. As cold as it was, the kid was tangling with the law of the jungle now and there was no turning back. If they found him twitching on the floor they'd put a bullet through his brain and not bat an eye because that was just the way it was. If he miraculously appeared unharmed they might do it anyways for leaving Rain on her own. Even the little girl was sagely sticking close up there with them and not running off from all the abominations in the tank. She was glued to Alice's side with a braver face than the twenty something kid had managed.

Let him twist in the wind.

Rain didn't respond for a moment and Chad was afraid she'd gone against Alice's orders and taken off after Danny anyhow. Rain had always been good at ignoring orders unless they came directly from One who she seemed to idolize for some ungodly reason. But she came on a few seconds later with a grim flat tone to her voice. "Yessir." She'd heard. She'd obey. And she'd bitch her out about it later somehow managed to get combined all in that one word through Rain's tone.

Chad sighed in relief. As much as he'd hated her in the past, he'd come to rely on hearing her voice even if it was usually bitching at him. She counterbalanced his negativity with passion. Goaded his fear into willpower. Without her he'd lose that. And most assuredly JD. The price was just too high without her or Alice or Matt.

Realizing that these people had become so integral to his life came as a rude awakening to Kaplan. Without him they'd still function as a unit and their chances were slim to none of making it out alive. They supported each other. They made it work. Without him they'd be inconvenienced, but they could carry on.

Feeling suddenly very small in the scheme of things, Chad rested his hand against the tank, looking at the rest of the team who'd suddenly become flurries of activity around the lab. Only the little girl was staring at him with that odd blank look. Her mouth was opening but no sound came forth until her piercing shriek drew everyone's attention to the creature suddenly very active within the tank behind him and the glass it spider webbed easily with one great blow of a tentacle.

Kaplan's shirt soaked in the rush of amniotic fluid that poured forth from the tank and knocked both him and the writhing mass of man and beast to the floor. He raised his head and dug an elbow under him for leverage only to see that the other 'things' inhabiting the rest of tanks were stirring as well. Apparently the virus didn't just effect human host. By terminating their failed experiments the scientists had unknowingly infected their experiments as well. 


End file.
